worthy a purpose as to lift up a miserable world that was cast down and laid very low indeed He certainly is most worthy of his unsearchable riches since such is his goodness as that he was not content to be happy alone nor to see us lie in poverty and misery so long as he was able to relieve us and make us happy with his riches but rather than he would be wanting in this he chose for some time in some sort to empty himself to fill us Ye know saith St. Paul the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be made rich 2 Cor. 8.9 This is not the manner of men indeed nor was it in the power of Angels and therefore his Glory is to be exalted above the earth and heavens and both made to ring with joyful acclamations and praises of and to our blessed Redeemer And it is very observable that those in Revel 14. who are said to have sung a new song before the throne are described by the Virginity of their Christianity as not being prevailed upon by any temptations whatsoever to be unfaithful to Christ but are said to be such as do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth and in whose mouths is found no guile still denoting that sincerity by which the Evangelical Righteousness hath been described And it 's further observable also that it 's said there that no man could learn this new song but those which are Redeemed from the earth And the reason is evident because those who mostly and chiefly mind earthly things and set their affections upon them as those which are not Redeemed from the earth do neither have nor can have such a grateful sense of that stupendious ravishing and transporting love and goodness of our blessed Redeemer in what he hath done and suffered for us as is requisite to qualifie them to sound forth his praises with that feeling and affection which the Redeemed of the Lord do Our Saviour hath told us that the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts and pleasures of other things choke the word of the Kingdom and so hinder its operation Though men hear it and profess it yet the great sense which too many such have of these present things stifles their sense of Spiritual invisible and absent things so that they prevail not upon them to work any such deep sense in them of the unparallel'd love and goodness of our Saviour in procuring these things for us as they do upon them who have learned to sing that new song These that are Unredeemed from the earth they savour the things of the flesh and of the world more than the things which be of God and therefore they cannot sing this new Song with Grace in their hearts to him None then we see but new Covenant men such as are renewed in the spirit of their minds can learn this new song they are a peculiar sort of men and women a choice or chosen generation that can shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light Those whom the Lamb that was slain hath Redeemed from Hell by his own bloud are such who are first Redeemed from the earth both from the earthly minds and evil manners of men of the earth whose portion is only in this life This blessed Redeemer whose high praises should be in our mouths is the Lord from Heaven and his Kingdom is not of this world as he himself said and they must be of a Heavenly extraction and born from above that can skill of the manner of his Kingdom and Government and of the nature of the work and business of that people The discourse of things proper to that spiritual state is to mere natural men almost like speaking to them in a language they do not understand Hence when Nicodemus heard our Saviour discourse of the necessity of being born again or from above his thoughts ran of a mans entering a second time into his mothers womb to be born again The things of the Spirit of God to the natural man are foolishness so far is he alienated from the life of God 1 Cor. 2.14 And the Scripture speaks of the sons of God such as are born from above as of persons whom the world knoweth not 1 John 3.1 All this still shews how absolutely necessary it is in order to our learning the new song which is sung before the throne to the honour of the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world that we become new men endued with new principles of living and with a new Righteousness And by being so we shall not only be qualified to offer spiritual Sacrifices of thanksgiving acceptable to our Saviour and to the Father by him but we shall thereby also recommend him to the world as altogether lovely which is the greatest honour we can do him For the new man is created after his likeness in purity humility and charity in universal Righteousness Gentleness and Goodness in which respect the followers of Christ are said to be partakers of a Divine nature and to have put on Christ And when men see that his Disciples become such by following his doctrine and example this redounds to the honour of their master from whom they learned it and greatly tends to reconcile mens thoughts and affections to him and to his Religion And thus they help forward his great design on which he set his heart of recovering those that were run from God and goodness and from their own happiness than in doing which we cannot gratifie him more or please him better By becoming such and by being in the world as he was in the world we shall shew forth the vertues of our Lord and what is venerable and praise-worthy in him In respect whereof his followers are said to be the glory of Christ And if we have any mind to make our blessed Saviour any other return of that stupendious Love which he hath exprest towards us besides songs of praise and thanksgiving to the honour of his name he hath told us how we may do it to his great satisfaction when he said If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15 As if he should have said if ye would express the grateful sense of my love to you by expressions of yours to me then keep my Commandments For saith he again Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15.14 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me Ver. 21. Our doing his Commandments tends to the full accomplishment of his design of reconciling God and us and so of making us happy For unless we keep his Commandments we cannot be reconciled to God and consequently God will not be reconciled to us So that if we will not keep his Commandments we frustrate and disappoint him of his
are sustained and assisted to operate according to what is proper to the nature of them So that if any man who enjoys the Gospel perish it is through his own neglect to do what he was able to have done towards his own believing It is indeed for his not believing but then the reason of his not believing and the fault of it is imputable only unto him and lies wholly at his door Because he might have believed and would certainly have been enabled to believe if he had not grosly neglected to do what he could and might have done towards it If this were not so that men might as certainly believe repent and make themselves new hearts if they can but be persuaded to do what they can do towards it as if they had all the power requisite thereto in their own hands then to what purpose are they required by God in Scripture as they are to believe to make themselves new hearts and to repent and turn themselves from all their transgressions to circumcise their hearts to wash their hearts from wickedness to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit or why and in what respect else can men be said to save themselves Which yet they are 1 John 3.23 Ezek. 18.30 31 32. and 14.6 Deut. 10.16 Jer. 4.14 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Tim. 4.16 It is from the certainty of Gods cooperating with mens endeavours to the producing of these effects if men fail not to do what they well may do that these effects are ascribed to men as well as unto God though God be indeed the principal Agent beyond all comparison and men but in a very inferior degree the subordinate Though salvation be of the Lord and that besides him there is no Saviour in a sense proper to him yet in a sense proper to mens endeavours St. Paul disdained not to assure Timothy that if he took heed to himself and to his doctrine and continued therein that then in so doing he should both save himself and those that heard him 1 Tim. 4.16 It is a common thing in Scripture where several free Agents concur to the producing of the same effect to attribute the effect to both though the Agency of the one of them be never so inferiour to the other Thus though God is said to give a new heart and a new spirit and to circumcise the heart Ezek. 36.26 Deut. 30.6 yet men are still supposed to be in some capacity to make themselves new hearts and to circumcise their own hearts in as much as they are required to do it as I have shewed That is they are supposed to be in a capacity to do somthing towards it though very little in comparison of what is done by God therein when it is done indeed Thus again men are required to work out their own salvation when yet it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. Which is not so to be understood as if God did work in them to will and to do exclusive of all endeavours of theirs for if that had been his meaning he would thereby have rendred his own exhortation and the reason of it useless in persuading them to work out their own salvation for that reason because it is God which worketh in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure Nor yet is it so to be understood on the other hand as if men could do all of themselves which is necessary for the working out or carrying the business of their salvation quite through without supernatural assistance But his meaning then seems to be that it is the good will and pleasure of God to work in such men both to will and to do to the saving of their souls who do endeavour through the preventive and concomitant Grace of God to do what they can do towards it When the work of Grace in man is ascribed to God and Christ it is not to be understood exclusively of all endeavours of men When our Saviour speaking of his Disciples bringing forth fruit saith without me ye can do nothing he does not say nor mean that with him they could do nothing When it was said to the Israelites Deut. 8. it is God that giveth you power to get wealth their own endeavours in that acquisition were not excluded but the meaning was I suppose that the means the opportunities and advantages on that behalf were of God and the ordering of his good providence towards them Though Solomon says in one place The blessing of the Lord maketh rich yet he saith in another The diligent hand maketh rich Though it be but very little which man doth towards his believing in comparison of what God doth yet the effect of that doing the act of believing is still from place to place ascribed unto men for it is they are ascribed unto men for it is they that are said to believe How much soever God doth in producing Faith in men yet therein still mans faculties are preserved in such a free use and exercise as is proper to such a creature as God hath made man to be and from thence it is denominated his act as I have said Now then if this were not so that God hath by advantage of the Gospel where it comes given so much power unto men of acting towards their own believing and so much assurance of his further assistance to enable them to believe unto Righteousness if they grosly neglect not to do what they can do towards it I say if this were not so how can it possibly stand with the infinite goodness of the nature of God for him to damn men for not believing or with the sincerity of such sayings of his in which he hath declared That he is not willing that any man should perish and that he would have all men to be saved 2 Pet. 3.9 1 Tim. 2.4 How will God be justified in this in the sight of Angels and men and in the consciences of condemned sinners themselves if their unbelief and perishing for it were not through their own neglect And how else could mens destruction be said as it is to be of themselves Hos 13.9 We see then from the nature of the thing and the honor of God as concerned in it as well as from the evidence of Scripture what reason we have to hold that all men under the Gospel are in such a capacity of performing the condition of the promise of Pardon and Life by believing as that if they do it not it is through their own gross and wilful neglect to do what they might have done towards it And for any to make God so the Author of mens destruction as to affirm that he never put them into a capacity of preventing it by believing is a daring undertaking whoever ventures upon it and tends to tempt men to think dishonorably of the goodness of God and of the truth and sincerity of his declarations
Rom. 5. But otherwise and in reference to such as have contracted ill habits by their own actual sin the pardon obtained by our Saviour for the whole world or which he came to obtain was but Conditional it was upon condition of their being prevailed withal to be reconciled unto God Otherwise and if this were not so all would have been saved whether they believed and repented or no. Whereas our Saviour hath said it he that believeth not shall be damned and that repenteth not shall perish Though God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son yet he loved it but so as to promise salvation by him only to those that believe John 3.16 Now this pardon thus obtained and granted upon account of our Saviours obedience unto death but upon condition of mens being persuaded to be reconciled to God and yet certain to be conferred upon that condition is a most powerful motive and means to persuade men to be reconciled to God when it comes to be divulged and made known and when it is believed that pardon is certainly to be obtained this way and no way without it And therefore the Scripture speaks of it as the Method used by God to reconcile the world to himself 2. Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses that is provided they would not wilfully persist in them 4. Another end of the Mediatorial obedience of our Saviour subordinate to the former that last mentioned and as a means to effect it was the obtaining and founding of a new Law of Grace the new Covenant promising both pardon and eternal life upon condition and stating and declaring that condition to be published to the world as Gods great instrument of prevailing with men to be reconciled to God in order to their obtaining pardon and Salvation Upon which account the Gospel which is this new Law of Grace is said to be the power of God to Salvation to every one that believes it Rom. 1.16 Now all having sinned no flesh living could be justified but in a way of grace and mercy And therefore there was a kind of necessity of a new Law a Law of Grace by virtue of which men should be justified if justified at all But it did not seem meet to the divine wisdom to make such a Law of Grace but upon condition that some such thing should be undergone and suffered by our blessed Saviour on our bebehalf as would as well answer the end of the penalty of the original Law transgressed as if that penalty had been inflicted on the transgressors of it themselves But this being done by the sufferings of our Saviour as I shall shew afterward a fair way was thereby prepared for the Constituting a new Covenant promising pardon and eternal life upon new terms and conditions such as are not only possible but also feisable as well as reasonable in our state and condition Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith that is that we might receive the blessing and benefits of a new Covenant Gal. 3.13 14. And accordingly the Scripture frequently represents to us that the new Covenant is made with mankind upon account of what Christ did and suffered for us It was not only ratified and confirmed by the Sacrifice of his death but also thereby procured This I say saith S. Paul that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ c. Gal. 3.17 And all the promises of God are in him Yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 And the New Testament is called the New Testament in his bloud Mat. 26.28 and his blood the bloud of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 And when the Scriptures speak of Gods promising eternal life before the world began Tit. 1.2 and of Gods purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1.9 they seem to refer to what God the Father promised Christ on the behalf of mankind upon his Mediatory undertaking for them even then when this was resolved on and concluded by the Father and the Son before the world began For a conclusion of this matter and to shew that the Covenant of Grace was granted upon the account of the righteousness of Christ hear what S. Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.1 To them saith he that have obtained like precious Faith with us through the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whether you take Faith here for the act of believing the Gospel or the Gospel it self as the object of Faith which seems most likely or for both yet this is given through or upon account of the righteousness of him who is both God and our Saviour If you ask how the Mediatory righteousness of our Saviour in this subordination of ends doth operate to our Justification I answer Our reconciliation to God by being renewed in heart and life is the matter of our Evangelical Righteousness upon which we are justified For God justifies none that are not reconciled to him nor which are not Evangelically righteous But then our reconciliation to God and our becoming Evangelically righteous thereby and our being justified thereupon as I shall after shew we are are all owing to the Mediatory obedience or Righteousness of Christ for from that it is that they are what they are And so far as these operate to our Justification they do it in Virtue of Christs Mediatory performance And so do those two great motives the hopes of the forgiveness of sin and eternal life by which we are persuaded to be reconciled to God and to become Evangelically righteous for these also are founded in the Mediatorial obedience of our Saviour without which we could have had no such hopes and therefore Christ is well and worthily said to be our hope 1 Tim. 1.1 And then for the new Covenant as that operates to our Justification as it is a new Law constituting a new Righteousness and as it is the rule according to which we are approved as righteous and adjudged to be righteous when God justifies us so this operation receives its life and being and virtue from another operation and that is from the operation of the Mediatorial obedience and righteousness of our Saviour by which the Covenant it self was obtained Indeed all that any ways operates to our Justification and Salvation depends upon our Saviours Mediatorial performance except what God himself doth and yet what he himself doth in relation thereto is still done with reference to the undertaking and performance of his Son Jesus Christ for us Christ is the foundation which God himself hath laid which bears up the whole fabrick of our Redemption and Salvation which indeed is built upon it Isa 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone
our Saviour hath said Heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away Mat. 24.35 Those are the Vnbelievers which shall certainly perish who will not believe God who will not believe the Son of God when they have spoken their mind fully and plainly but will needs flatter themselves with hopes that they will be better than their words 3. Our Saviour to take away from men such vain hopes and to convince them of the necessity of their being reconciled to God hath told them that if they will not be reconciled to him they cannot be reconciled to happiness that their nature cannot be capable of the happiness of the next world unless they are reconciled to God in this Except a man be born again saith he he cannot see the kingdom of God John 3.3 Except such as have contracted ill habits by bad living be born again they are not capable of the happiness of that state That is in other words except they put off the old man and put on the new Col. 3.10 or which is yet more plainly exprest Ephes 4.22 23 24. except they put off concerning their former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of their minds and do put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness except this be done they cannot see the kingdom of God i. e. they cannot enjoy it He doth not say they shall not but that they cannot see it And the reason is because the happiness of the heavenly state is of such a nature as between which and the nature of man as viciated and corrupt there is no congruity And that which hath a contrariety in it to the nature of a creature is not matter of pleasure but of torment to it The holy God the holy Jesus the holy Angels and holy Men are the inhabitants of Heaven And what felicity can unholy men take in such company Solomon saith the upright are an abomination to the wicked Prov. 29.27 And if they be so here where they are but in part holy how much more will they be so in the other world when they are altogether so What Communion saith St. Paul hath righteousness with unrighteousness no more than light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 They do not love God here as he is holy nor is it pleasure to them to think of him as such and therefore unless they be sanctified and made so here they are not capable of enjoying God in the next world in the enjoyment of whom the happiness of Heaven doth consist Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And they are such as are pure in heart which shall see God Mat. 5.8 Besides those sinful lusts which wicked men carry along with them into the next world will keep them from being happy in what place soever they are when they shall be deprived of those carnal objects to satisfie them which they found in this world And lest any should think that God will be so merciful to them as so to alter and change their nature when they come into the other world as that they shall be capable of the happiness of Heaven though they are not changed in this our Lord hath told them aforehand to prevent such a conceit that though many shall say unto him in that day Lord Lord open unto us for we have heard thee preach in our streets have eat and drunk in thy presence have prophesied and cast out devils in thy name and done many wonderful works yet they having lived and died unreformed he will then say unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Mat. 7.22 Luke 13.25 26. And St. Paul his Apostle hath told us also that we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive according to that he hath done in the body whether it be good or bad We must receive we see according to what is done in the body here in this life before the separation of soul and body by death 2 Cor. 5.10 Now is the accepted time now the day of Salvation and those that out-stand this it will be said unto them as our Saviour doth in Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still By all these Revelations made by our Saviour he hath as any that will consider them may easily see put men upon a necessity of being reconciled to God unless they had rather chuse to be everlastingly miserable And in this with the forementioned Motives there is a very great aptitude to reconciel men to God as the reason of the thing shews and the event hath declared And thus we have now seen how the Mediatory Righteousness of our Saviour his obedience in executing the Law of Mediation doth operate to our Justification in reference both to God and men By his sufferings he reconciled God to penitent sinners by making satisfaction to his governing Justice and by securing the ends of his inflicting punishment upon impenitent offenders while he spares the penitent And by the Gospel which he hath set on foot the Holy Spirit concurring he reconciles men to God that is he reconciles their minds and wills their lives and actions to Gods Holy Nature Government and Laws which is their Evangelical Righteousness in which capacity he delivers them up to God to be Justified and Pardoned according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace which he likewise obtained for us it being founded on his Mediatory obedience of which Covenant I am now in the next place to speak CHAP. III. How and in what respect the Covenant of Grace operates to our Justification THE Covenant of Grace operates to our Justification in several respects But however it doth this or in what respect soever yet all that operation is owing to the Mediatorial Righteousness or Obedience of our Saviour For I have shewed in what goes before that the Covenant it self was obtained by and founded in the Mediatorial Righteousness of our Saviour the obtaining of which was one of the ends of the Office and Work of Christ as Mediator And as it is one of the effects of our Saviours death it is called a Testament though in other respects it is called a Covenant yea a Law As its promises are made by God on condition of duty to be performed by us so it is a pact or Covenant As it absolutely enjoyns that as duty which is also the condition of our happiness so it is a Law But as it comes out of the hands of Jesus Christ and is the Fruit of his death so it is a Testament because by that it receives its vigor and strength A Testament saith the Apostle is of force when men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth Heb. 9.17 This being premised I come now to
Righteous without all mixture of that which deserves not the name of holiness and goodness nor they without unrighteousness antecedent to this and before they had repented and therefore is not such a compleat Righteousness as would hold measure according to the standard of the Law of innocency if we were to be tried by that to be Justified or Condemned by that In this regard the best of us have cause with the Psalmist to cry out and say If thou Lord shouldst work iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 130.3 It is indeed a growing Righteousness that is by degrees growing up towards a perfect state such in whom it is are perfecting holiness in the fear of God But before it is grown to this perfect state it is in the account of grace and by way of favour and for Christs sake accepted and approved by God for such Righteousness as unto which he hath promised the pardon of all past offences and of all such after infirmities as are consistent with this Covenant-Righteousness in its lower degree and also eternal Life it self So that in a word this thing we call everlasting Righteousness by which we are Justified owes it self its very being such a Righteousness as it is unto the Covenant of Grace or that Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ which is put into a Covenant for us 3. The Covenant operates to our Justification as being the rule by which those are justified in judgment to be Righteous persons such as to whom the promise of pardon and eternal life is made that are justified at all Righteousness as I have formerly shewed receives its denomination as it doth its nature from its conformity to some Law And this Covenant-Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith receives its denomination from its Conformity to the Covenant of Grace as being that qualification in the person on condition of which the promises of the Covenant are made and therefore every man that is Justified is Justified by this Law to be such a person as to whom the promises are made It is by this Law that such a person is Justified in his cause if a man be not a Just and Righteous person in the sense of this Law he will not be Justified by God for he judgeth of men and their cause by this Law Jam. 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty that is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace And our Saviour saith The word that I have spoken the same shall judg you in the last day John 12.48 4. The Covenant operates to our Justification as an instrument of making us to become Righteous and so capable subjects of Justification And this it doth by way of motive or persuasion The great and precious promises made to men in this Covenant of pardon of sin and eternal Life on condition of the Righteousness of Faith Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness and not otherwise they out of a desire and love to the benefits promised are persuaded to imbrace the condition without which they cannot enjoy them that is to become Righteous The Gospel ministration is called the ministration of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3.9 And it is so both as it ministers to us the knowledg that there is another Righteousness than that which is of the Law and also as it ministers to us powerful motives and assistances to follow after Righteousness by which they become Righteous and so to be Justified St. Paul saith The Gospel is the power of God to Salvation in as much as therein the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.16 17. the terms on which God will account them Righteous and the motives to make them so these are revealed by the Gospel by which it becomes the power of God to Salvation to those that believe it The Gospel is a ministration of Righteousness and of Justification as it is the ministration of Reconciliation of reconciling us to God of reconciling our nature to the holy nature of God and to his holy Laws by making us partakers of a Divine Nature a God-like Nature in Holiness and Goodness which is done by the great and precious promises of the Gospel of pardon and eternal Life as powerful motives persuading men to become new creatures in order to the obtaining these great benefits promised and attainable only upon condition of such our reconciliation to God which puts us into a perfect capacity of Justification that is of being approved of as those who have performed the condition of the foresaid promised benefits Thus the Gospel is called the word of reconciliation which was committed to the Apostles and others and their Ministry the ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18.19 And by a practical knowledg and belief of these things revealed by the Gospel men come to be justified that is approved of as those that have known believed and obeyed the Gospel By his knowledg saith God concerning Christ shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 That is by the knowledg of him in what he is hath done and suffered revealed and taught What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh as to free us from the Law of sin and to bring us to that Righteousness which it did design but could not effect that is now done by the Law of the spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus to wit the Gospel The Law without the Gospel could not give us that assurance of Gods willingness to be reconciled to us and of pardon upon repentance which the Gospel does much less of a glorious reward of new obedience For the promise of pardon for Christs sake upon our repentance the promise of the Resurrection of the Body and of the Celestial Glory are brought to light by the Gospel being matters of supernatural Revelation Now it is the great assurance which the Gospel gives us of these things upon the account of Christs death that is the powerful motive of prevailing with men to be reconciled to God and to become Evangelically Righteous that they may be Justified And therefore the preaching of the Cross is said to be to them that are saved the power of God and for wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.18 24. That is it contains and lays open Gods most wise contrivance of reconciling sinners to himself and by that means becomes his powerful motive of drawing men to it that so they may be Justified Pardoned and Glorified The Law made nothing perfect it is the bringing in of this better hope by the Gospel that doth it Heb. 7.19 The Law which laid a burden of strict obedience upon men backt with severe threatnings in case of transgression prevailed little upon men but to keep them under a spirit of bondage to fear while they were unacquainted with the rich grace and indulgence of the Gospel by which the Yoke of Christ is rendered easie and his burden light The Gospel prevails much
persons according to the tenor of the Gospel-Covenant and so qualifies them to be so adjudged by God against all accusations to the contrary by what or by whomsoever It is that which makes their cause good when they come to be tried and judged by the Law of Liberty because it is all which that Law requires to denominate them Righteous and to entitle them to the benefit of that Law This Righteousness of Faith is the essential matter or material cause of our Justification without which no such thing could be and supposing which it cannot but be so long as the Gospel-Covenant stands in force It makes those that have it the proper subjects of Justification for as God will condemn the wicked so he will most certainly Justifie the Righteous such as are made so by his own Grace without respect of persons he judgeth acocrding to every mans work and the nature of his cause In these and the like respects doth the Righteousness of Faith operate to our Justification These things stand proved in what hath been said before in opening the nature of the Covenant of Grace and the nature of Faith and the reason of its designation by God to its Office and work And may be yet further confirmed by those Scriptures where Faith is said to be counted and imputed to us for Righteousness as it was to Abraham Rom. 4.3 6 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Gen. 15.6 Jam. 2.23 For if God count it to us for Righteousness then it is our Righteousness for God accounts of things but as they are when they are what they are of his own making as this Righteousness of Faith is And if this Faith be our Righteousness in Gods account then they must needs be Righteous in his account that are Righteous with this Righteousness and be approved of and adjudged such by him And thus Faith operates to our Justification as it is the essential and intrinsical matter of our Justification CHAP. V. How God himself operates to our Justification I Come now in the last place to enquire in what respects Justification is attributed to God and what his operation is in producing this great effect of Justifying such as have been sinners That he doth Justifie believers by some acts proper to him is no Christians doubt It is one God which shall Justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.30 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 Now God may be said to Justifie in several respects some more remote and some more proximate and immediate God is the Author Spring and Fountain and principal efficient cause of all other causes that any way concur or cooperate to our Justification Christ himself which is the foundation stone in this building by virtue of whose Mediatorial Righteousness we are Justified he is made to us of God Wisdom and Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 It is also God which hath given being to the new Covenant which is the Covenant of his Grace by virtue of which also we are Justified And the Righteousness of Faith which is the matter of our Justification is of Gods working in us by his Spirit Whence it is that both our Sanctification and Justification are attributed to the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But that which we have now principally to consider is what that last act is or those last acts are by which God Justifies us And his operation herein is judicial for he Justifies as a Judg and therein proceeds by his own Law of Grace as the rule of judging of men and their cause And Gods judicial Justification of men doth stand I conceive in these two things principally 1. God in justifying of men approves of them for such as have performed the condition on which he in the Covenant of Grace promised pardon of sin and eternal Life That is he approves of them for true believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel to live according to the doctrine of their Saviour and adjudgeth them to be such 2. Those whom God approveth of as true and sincere observers of the new Law the Gospel or Covenant of Grace those he adjudgeth to be Righteous persons and that Faith of theirs by which they have fulfilled it to be their Righteousness True believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel they are Justified by the Gospel that is they are Righteous in the sense and meaning of that Law For that practical obediential Faith of theirs is their conformity to this Law of Christ the Gospel and therefore it must needs be their Evangelical Righteousness But there is this difference between being justified by the Gospel as it is the new Law of Grace and by being justified by God The Gospel-Covenant pronounceth all true believers in General to be Righteous persons but doth not determine whether this or that person in particular be a true believer and so a Righteous man or woman But God in justifying men determineth and adjudgeth this and that man in special to be a true believer and therefore a Righteous man in the sence of the Law of Grace It is the work of a Judg to apply the Law as a general rule to the special cases of particular men and to justifie or condemn men in particular in reference to their particular cases by and according to the general rule of the Law And so doth God the Judg of all in the case before us He knows and considers every man in particular whether he be a true believer or not And those whom he finds to be so those he adjudgeth to be Righteous according to the tenor of the Gospel which is his justifying of them Now that God justifieth men this way and after this manner does I conceive plainly and fully appear by those Scriptures which tell us that God doth justifie us by Faith and that he doth impute or account Faith to us for Righteousness One vein of Scriptures acquaints us that God justifieth us by Faith and through Faith Rom. 3.28 30. and 5.1 Gal. 2.16 and 3.8 By another vein of Texts we are told that God imputes accounts and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.3 5 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Jam. 2.23 Now these two veins of Scripture put together the sense that results out of them is I think plainly this That God justifies us by accounting our Faith to us for Righteousness This is so plain as that I know not what can well be plainer In the one vein it 's said that God justifieth us by Faith in the other that he imputes and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness And for God to account Faith to us for Righteousness and to reckon and adjudg us to be Righteous upon the account of our Faith signifies I think the same
prove Justification by Faith to be of Grace and not of debt as I have shewed from Rom. 4. but never throughout the whole Scripture stiled Righteousness that ever I could find And if any think it is implyed in such Scriptures where the reward of Righteousness is stiled Righteousness by a Figure yet if it should be so it would no more prove Remission of sin to be Justification than it will prove Glorification to be Justification which yet in St. Pauls account is quite different from it For he says Whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 And now for these reasons I hope it will not be thought unnecessary nor unprofitable to have endeavoured to shew that there is a difference between Justification and Remission of sin however what hath been done herein is submitted to the consideration and judgment of the judicious Reader But there is another opinion which I but now mentioned of worse consequence as I apprehend it of which I have said but little And that is the opinion of those who place our Justification in the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to us not only in its effects as we all hold but in it self as if it were so transferred to us that we were Righteous with the very same personal and numerical Righteousness wherewith he himself is Righteous and that it is so reckoned ours as if we had wrought it in our own persons yea that indeed we have wrought it in and by him The nakedness of which opinion hath been plentifully exposed by others and I shall not concern my self with it now further than what I have already done in these papers Wherein I have shewed that the Righteousness of Christ operates to our Justification in quite another way And likewise that it is the Christian Faith as operative and practical that is imputed to us for Righteousness and that by virtue of Christs Righteousness and Gods act of Grace upon the account of it But then this which yet is the plain doctrine of the Holy Scripture is quite another thing than the transferring of Christs Righteousness it self to us Indeed this opinion excludes and shoulders out the Christian Evangelical Righteousness from the office and use to which God hath designed it and is attended with several dangerous consequences and absurdities otherwise as hath been set forth at large in several Books which treat of this subject which I shall forbear to repeat For my design in these papers was not to treat of Justification in a way of controversie nor so much to detect what is to be avoided as what is to be imbraced and held fast in this matter For I reckon that if that which is the truth be received into the mind upon satisfactory grounds that which is its contrary will fall off of it self The Conclusion WE have now seen how much hath been done by the Eternal Father and his Holy Son our Blessed Saviour that we might be Justified Pardoned and Glorified all things on their part are prepared and made ready The Father hath made and the Son hath fulfilled the Law of Mediation to bring about a Reconciliation between an offended God and us Rebel-Creatures Christ hath now no more sorrows nor pains nor deaths to undergo and suffer for us There are no terms of Grace and Mercy of Pardon and Peace of deliverance from Hell and of obtaining the Glory of Heaven which are not already obtained for us and by the Gospel plainly made known and freely offered to us For it is as I have shew'd of Grace in God and obtained by the Mediatorial Righteousness of Christ that Faith or the Righteousness by Faith is made the condition of Pardon of sin and eternal Life as well as the conferring of Pardon and Life is on that condition Since then such terms of happiness are obtained for us it remains on our part that we receive not this Grace of God in vain but that we be as careful to observe those terms as we are desirous to enjoy the benefits annexed to them because we cannot enjoy the one without observing the other We cannot enjoy the benefits of the new Covenant but by becoming new creatures and by living new lives For this is the new Righteousness by Faith on condition of which the great promises of the new Covenant are made Whoever will come to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb must come in his Wedding garment or else he will be excluded And the Wedding garment in which the Bride the Lambs Wife is said to be arayed is said to be the Righteousness of Saints Revel 19.8 And now Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us we must keep the Feast on this Sacrifice not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth which is the Evangelical Righteousness I have been speaking so much of 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Old things are past away now and behold all things are become new Our old Righteousness in which man was first made is lost and a new Righteousness instituted In the room of the old terms of happiness perfect innocency now the new ones of Faith and godly Sincerity are introduced This new and living way into Heaven is now consecrated for us through the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ Nothing but a new man a new heart a new spirit and newness of life will correspond or suit with the new Covenant nor with the new Jerusalem which is above These are all of one piece there is no parting of them nor having an interest in the one without having the other And now considering that all this happiness of Pardon of sin and the Glory to come and the terms of obtaining both is brought about only by the Grace of our God and the Mediatorial Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ what can we do less than to joyn with those Redeemed of the Lord mentioned in Rev. 5. who are said to have sung a new song to the everlasting honor of our Redeemer saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast Redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests How much more cause have we to sound forth the praises of the Redeemer of the World than those Myriads of Holy Angels which have no such need of a Saviour as we have Who yet out of a grateful sense of it celebrate the memory of his most wonderful and worthy undertaking and performance for the Redemption of us poor miserable and lost men Saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And well may we with those blessed spirits sing aloud of the riches wisdom and strength of the Lamb that was slain as most worthy to receive these because he useth them to so